


Least of Our Worries

by Lulannie



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 21:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10344576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulannie/pseuds/Lulannie
Summary: Following Season 5, Episode 13, "Blood Ties"The spell to teleport Glory results in more than just headaches and nosebleeds.





	

**Author's Note:**

> because to antagonise a character is to truly love them

She's reluctant to extricate herself from their comfortable tangle, which comprises of lazily outspread arms and interlinked legs that fidget of no-I-want-you-closer-ness. However, nature calls - she hasn't left a voicemail in years - and Tara unweaves ( _de-weaves?_ ) herself, slipping carefully from their bed in destination of the bathroom. 

 _Unweaves_ , she decides. Though de-weaves would be the kind of goofy euphemism that Willow would delight in, grin at.

She's further lost in sleepy thought when the silent alarm begins to sound, only noticing the pressure in her ears as she dries her hands on the bathroom towel. She halts for a moment, though never conflicted between saving her herself discomfort and soothing Willow. The bedroom door opens and the some of the force diffuses into the hall, pressing insistently against her head, hands, neck - a numbed stinging reverberates violently. After shutting the door gently (out of conscious, really, the others in the house are blissfully incapable of recognising the uneasy sensation), she fetches a wad of tissue from their dresser, advances purposefully yet lovingly on the source of the fractured vibrations.

Willow convulses on the bed, blood dyes the bedsheets as her head buries into the pillows. Tara can't help but look at her face, shuddering and damp as excess magic is expelled from her in uneven waves. Tara disciplines her tired hands - holds the unconscious girl steady and upright.

Wipe nose. Chin back, airways open. Head supported.

The fiercest wave yet escapes - an inadvertent hand strikes Tara's side. Wipe nose. Wipe nose. Gently, the skin's a little raw. A hand smooths back damp hair.

A further rampant shudder shakes Willow's shoulders. Her abdomen is wracked with spasms which tear up through her chest and throat.

The dry retching starts. Tara lowers the thrashing body onto its side. She wants to hum a familiar tune, or whisper tiny, soothing lovelets in the girl's ear, but the crackling atmosphere presses against her eardrums, and gnaws at her vision. She needs to open a window. The air is dense and toxic. Her fingers feel detached, legs uncooperative, heart too leaden to loosen her hold on Willow.

Tara faintly notices dark blood being coughed into the tissue she'd forgotten she's holding - this is how it usually ends.

She doesn't know how long it takes for the expulsions to wind down. It feels like hours before she can somewhat make out the hands on their bedside clock, but she clings to her consciousness long enough to hear a chiming that might be four or five am, maybe both (the sound is watery and goes on too long). Once she can differentiate the telling ticks, Tara separates herself, stumbling from the feverish bed toward the windows, which are wet with an anguish-laced substance which might seem as water to anyone else.

Windows clumsily open with an uncoordinated weight; the heat and the hurt of the room gradually dissipate into the night.

Willow is sleeping soundly now, though she's still flushed. Her nose and lips are dark. Tara hopes that tonight's bout didn't happen too late that Willow might be aware of it once she wakes.

She washes and replaces the dirtied linen, gently wipes down Willow's chest and neck, all in a routine monotony. It's almost light when she weaves herself beneath the covers - too hot - and schools her features into a contentedness which would arouse no worry.

Later that day, when Willow complains of a headache. Buffy remarks on how brave she is.


End file.
